In the bottom of the ninth inning, with the Mets up two runs, Lucas Duda dove to his right and stopped a hard-hit ground ball from Brian McCann, which, had it gotten through the infield, would have been an RBI single and moved the tying run to third base.

“He hit the ball pretty hard, and I just got lucky,” Duda said, who tied the game with a single in the eighth inning. “I stuck my glove out and that was it. It was pretty tough. He hit the ball pretty well.”

Matthew Cerrone, Lead Writer

He gets knocked for his fielding because it’s an easy target. But, he’s actually been pretty good, or at least better than I expected. He has good reflexes for a guy his size. His footwork isn’t great, but he plays smart and is often in the right place at the right time. He picked a nice time to make a great stab… It’s also worth noting that the double play was helped out by the shift, resulting in David Wright acting as the shortstop.

Sadly the Dude won't play to night because a left hander is pitching for the Yankees tonight. Still interested to see Eric and how he can hit. i like him, looks like a good line drive hitter, we'll see as time goes by

Duda made some great plays but they were instinct plays. The fact is he still is not a good defensive player. Listening to Terry say I told you guys he can really play first! is another example of his stupidity.

Missing in all this is Farnsworth's lack of shutdown ... having to be saved by this play ... on the ball to CF, the first out, it looked like the batter was surprised he hadn't driven it 450 feet ... like the blown save against the Rockies ...

I wish them well, but perhaps Farnsworth and Valverde are best left to someone else, and we go with DeGrom, Montero, and Familia ...

I think this is an example of how something so small as a guy falling over and making a nice play has become such a big deal for the Mets. i watch other teams and they actually make plays all the time. Tejada's play at short last night was far superior. It is great Alderson has finally decided to infuse some of the young pitching into the major league roster, but that doesn't solve the problem that most days, the lineup is overmatched. Again, when the Mets do something you don't see every day, like make a good defensive play or hit s few home runs, play solid fundamentals, it is praised when in fact, it should be commonplace and expected. And one defensive play does not make up for the total ineptitude Duda has shown at the plate, The guy is not a major league hitter considering what you would expect out of his size and position.

The Wilpon's are Genius's. They charge as much as the Yankees for beer, but have an average ticket price HIGHER than the Yankees with SNY bringing in more revenue. Add to that, after the IKE trade, they have the 26th highest payroll in MLB at 78 million. They get away with all this in the largest City in America. Boy are they are good.

I like duda for trying his hardest but I still think we need a real dirt baseman. Duda is a great bat to come off the bench but the mets are the only team in baseball that he would be a starting first baseman for I do think we need to address the bullpen first though

Gotta admit, he's a much better all-around player than I thought he would ever become. He's made just one error all year, another surprise... When he starts hitting for power, we may have ourselves first baseman.

I gotta give a huge hat tip to The 7 Line for that crew of Mets fans in left field. That was no joke, I was loving it. Chris Young said it was crazy out there in the outfield thanks to that crew and the other Mets fans. That crew changed a major league ball players perspective from being there. Chris Young said that "this was the most exciting non-deciding game he has ever played in."

@72tilltc "But they were instinct plays," you say? What does that even mean? I find this especially interesting in light of the fact that one of the most frequent criticisms leveled against Duda is that he has very poor baseball instincts.

Duda started not one, but two 3-6-3 (or 3-5-3) double plays yesterday. Nobody's claiming that he's going to do this every day or that there are multiple Gold Gloves in his future. But word is he's been out there with Tuefel every day working on his fielding, and, like Daniel Murphy before him, he's been making some progress.

I'm sure Lucas will make his share of boneheaded plays and demonstrate his lack of range plenty over the weeks and months to come, and when he does, it's fair game (or at least fairer game) for you to say terrible things about him and about Collins for believing in him. But this is not the day to do that. Saying this stuff today just make you sound mean-spirited and dumb.

@alczervik She thinks he's an outfielder? and she gets paid to open her yap? Wow, she's out of touch. On the flip-side, since I don't watch the Yanks much, I thought very much to his credit, Gary Cohen had some interesting insight into what's going on with the Yanks.

@Christopher Masiello Let's not go overboard on one good game. I think he's improving but his average and power are mediocre and I'd still consider him to be an average fielder. I know on the Mets if you get a hit and make a nice catch in a game you look like a superstar but he's not there yet.

@TheJMan He won't be cut, but if terry uses him as a closer again with the options we have then he's an idiot.. farnsworth can still be useful in earlier innings, just not against an offensive powerhouse veteran team like the yankees

@Steven Glansberg@metsie Same could be said for TDA. I'm with Keith, why is he looking at so many fastballs? And I don't want to hear about the Mets philosphy. Their philiosophy is really no different than any other team- get a good pitch and hit it- if the guy grooves a fastball on the first pitch he should be attacking it.

@TheJMan@Steven Glansberg Oh im with you 100%, I'm in a group chat with my friends (some mets, some yankees) and the yankee fans were licking their chops when he came in, I knew it was going to be a disaster from the start

@TheJMan@Steven Glansberg I mean it depends, I would cut him but from their perspective it may be different with contracts and how long they want to keep the young guys up etc.. sometimes its good to have a vet to burn through that you know won't be on this team next year and you can abuse his arm